The three high schools in Highlands and Cashiers will all be conference mates next fall after the final realignment proposal form the NC High School Athletic Association was approved last week.
Following more than a year of wrangling over expanded classes, splitting conferences, and draft proposals, Highlands, Blue Ridge and Summit Charter all find themselves in what the state calls “1A/2A Conference G” but what will continue to be the Smoky Mountain Conference.
The new conference will have 13 members, split between the 1A and 2A classifications.
Highlands, Blue Ridge, Summit, Hiwassee Dam, Nantahala, Andrews, Robbinsville, Tri-County Early College and Rosman will be 1A. Murphy, Cherokee, Hayesville and Swain County will be 2A.
“I think this proposal was probably the best for us overall,” Highlands athletic director Brett Lamb said. “We get to keep our traditional rivalry teams together and our league’s geographic footprint doesn’t really change other than adding Rosman, which isn’t too terribly far away.”
Lamb did note that a 13-team league that is essentially split three ways will present some logistical hurdles, especially in the first year of the new format. When the NCHSAA decided to move from 4A splits for football to 8A, it meant the Smoky Mountain Conference would be three different school sizes playing together.
Highlands, Blue Ridge, Summit, Nantahala, Tri-County and Hiwassee Dam do not have football at all. Andrews, Rosman, Robbinsville will be 1A football playing members, while Murphy, Cherokee, Hayesville and Swain will be 2A football playing members.
“Splitting schools eight ways based on enrollment is no easy task, especially when you look at the geography of Western North Carolina,” Lamb said. “The 1A football schools and 2A football schools basically have to be put together, because we have so many small schools that are pretty spread out, in comparison to places like Raleigh and Charlotte where the schools are much closer together.”
The current 11-member Smoky Mountain Conference will remain together and bring in Rosman and Summit Charter.
Summit has been an independent team the past two years since starting a high school in Cashiers and will be joining an NCHSAA conference for the first time. Rosman has bounced in and out of the Smoky Mountain Conference throughout the school’s history based on its location. Rosman will take on the most arduous travel conditions in the conference, with trips to Murphy taking roughly two and a half hours on the road.